Don't let anyone who says every Pavement album is worth owning tell you that you don't need Archers of Loaf's final two albums. Til the end, these sorta-similar Carolina boys were riffier, hookier, and took their sound to farther places. To wit, the best songs on albums three and four are a creaky Waits-piano ballad ("Chumming the Oceans") and an electronic folktale that pre-dates Kid A ("White Trash Heroes"), respectively. Yet their surroundings sacrificed no rock ("Fashion Bleeds") or eyes-on-the-prize melody ("Bones of Her Hands"). Airports hilariously contains AoL's most Pavement-like song ("Gold Soundz" will turn red at "Scenic Pastures") among its Mancini-like instrumentals and suite-like segues. White Trash Heroes's goofier tangents, like the vocoded chorus of "One Slight Wrong Move," have aged surprisingly well. And if fans are wondering whether to rebuy for the incredible unreleased "Density" and "Little Jets," ask Nirvana fans if they needed "You Know You're Right."

Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010 The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.

Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.

The Magnetic Fields | Love At The Bottom Of The Sea The Magnetic Fields' last three albums all eschewed the synthesizers that typified their sound in the '90s, but Fields main man Stephin Merritt makes up for it on Love at the Bottom of the Sea, where he deploys at least 10 albums' worth of synths in a brisk 35 minutes.